ABSTRACT
Over her long literary career, Mary Russell Mitford (1787–1855) wrote poetry, drama, and prose. She also published numerous short dramatic sketches in literary journals and annuals during the 1830s. As a dramatist, she successfully staged four historical tragedies between 1823 and 1834 at Covent Garden and Drury Lane. She introduced her dramatic criticism in the introduction of her Dramatic Works (1854) with a justification for her involvement in the “ambitious and perilous paths of dramatic literature”, since she had always been a retired woman “whose days had passed chiefly in the calm seclusion of a country village”. She dated her acquaintance with drama back to her school days when she had the opportunity to regularly attend theatrical performances and got in touch with the most famous actors and actresses of her time. Thus, in her prefatory remarks, she conjures up the dynamic atmosphere of the theatre – lighting, sound, costume, rehearsal, etc. – involving the reader in the frenetic atmosphere of the theatre of her time, which she believed to be an almost magical world.
